


Swiping Right

by Pontmercyingtilthecowscomehome



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Online Dating, Bisexual Leia, Clone Rights, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Good Parent Jango Fett, Online Dating, Orphans, Slow Burn, kid!Ben Skywalker, past hanleia (canon compliant), set after rotj
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:06:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22055272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pontmercyingtilthecowscomehome/pseuds/Pontmercyingtilthecowscomehome
Summary: After Han leaves, Leia is convinced to try online dating... with mixed results. Perhaps she really should have read her match's biography.
Relationships: Boba Fett/Leia Organa
Comments: 12
Kudos: 130





	Swiping Right

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FettsOnTop (GTFF)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GTFF/gifts).



> Based on FettsOnTop's request to a very sneaky (LOL) anon ask! Happy New Year!!! Just a small fic to thank you for being such a wonderful part of the fandom community!

Somewhere in a small apartment, away from all the bustle of nation-building after the war had ended, Leia Organa sat on a couch with her best friend, staring down at a datapad. “No, no, definitely no.” Leia flicked through the faces showing on the holo screen. Each one included a biographical sketch.

“Are you even reading the bios?” Winter asked, pouring herself another glass of wine.

“Sort of?” Leia rested her chin in her hand. “Can’t I be shallow? Just for a little while? You are the one who dragged me into this whole holo-dating thing.”

“You can be shallow, sure.” Winter laughed, “but you’re the one who said all you want is a deep connection. A partner. Someone to talk to.”

Leia frowned, disliking being called out by her oldest friend. “Maybe I’d settle for someone handsome.”

“Didn’t you do that once already?”

“Hey, hey!” Leia lobbed a throw pillow at her. “Han had other good qualities!” Despite her protests, she didn’t mind that teasing. She and Han had never been meant to last. If it hadn’t been for the war, for the timing, they might have never been at all. She had made her peace with his departure, but that didn’t mean the aching need for a partner had vanished with it.

Leia was lonely. WInter, Luke, the others. they all had lives to live. She herself had a child to raise and projects to complete. It was the latter which kept her, most days, from thinking of entering into a new relationship. She had plans and projects and missions, and they were more than enough to fill the Han-shaped hole in her heart.

At least, during the day. At night, when she returned to a too-cold, too-big bed, that was a different story.

“I know, dear, I know.” Winter dropped the teasing, coming to sit next to Leia. She gave her a hug. “Come on. Let’s find you a match.” Together, they scrolled through more profiles, including several that Leia swiped right on.

“What happens after I swipe?

“If they do the same, you will get a notification. Then, they’ll set you up in a meeting room to holo-chat. It’s all very civilised.”

Leia’s brow furrowed. She considered having another glass of wine, but given that her five year old son would be up in under six hours, she decided against it. “I’m not sure if I trust its matching technique.”

“Then trust in the Force, dear.” Winter patted Leia’s head. “Han’s been gone for over a year. The divorce is finalized. Live a little.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Leia replied, swiping right on one last face. The man had been handsome, with a rugged jaw and thick dark hair. He looked a bit like a former clone trooper, or maybe someone who had worked on a farm. Someone who was strong and solid and hopefully, a damn good kisser.

Leia hadn’t read the biography, which might have been a mistake on her part.

She arrived early. It’s a habit she was never quite able to break, even after years of Han’s constant-lateness. She was escorted to a small room with a holo-projector and a bottle of liquor, along with a variety of berries and other small snacks. Then, the door shuts behind her.

“Well, here’s to me,” Leia said, dryly, pouring herself a drink. “Can’t be a worse place to meet a guy than a jail cell, right?”

Not that whoever she was meeting would understand that. The person would probably have been a civilian during the war, a bystander who had no understanding of how much war can wear one down. Or how hard it was to be a parent to a child, regardless of if the child was Force-sensitive or not.

Leia was pretty sure not a single child in the whole galaxy liked doing dishes, either. Maybe she should have read the profiles and only matched with parents.

Maybe she should just run away to Dagobah like Yoda had and become a muddy old hermit.

Just then, the holo buzzes on, crackling to life. Leia looks up from her drink, then, nearly spills it in shock. Had she not been selective enough in her matches?: What sort of mistake had she made?

She opens her mouth to speak, just as the man in the holo says the exact same thing. “You.”

His voice is cold, filtered through that distinctive Mandalorian helmet. Leia’s voice is colder, filtered through years of quiet fury. How dare he show up and make a mockery of this one small thing she tried to do for herself. Must her whole life be lived in the shadow of the past. “If you have a fob for a bounty on my head,” Leia said, her hand dropping to the lightsaber at her waist. “Show up and face me, you coward.”

“Do you open all your dates with threats, or just mine?” Boba Fett asks her, his arms folded across his chest.

Leia blinked. That had not been the answer she’d expected. Not at all. “What’s your game, Fett?”

“Same as yours, Senator.”

Her lips set in a narrow line. “I don’t like this.”

“Most people, I am told, do not enjoy holo-dating.”’

“Not what I meant.”

Boba Fett let out a short, curt breath. “You are a Jedi now, if the stories are to be believed. Search me. See if I tell the truth. I am here for the same goal as you.”

It seemed like a trap. But what would a bounty hunter stand to gain by allowing her inside his head in such a way? Truth be told, what did Fett stand to gain from any of this? So, Leia took the offer. She closed her eyes, opening herself up to the power of the Force. It was something close to what she’d done all her life, using her senses to detect truths buried deep within people. Luke’s training had merely, in some ways, amplified what she already knew.

Boba Fett, too, it seemed had been trained. Not to be a Jedi, but to have his mind searched by one. He had let Leia in, but not before carefully closing almost every mental door, showing her only his sincerity in this.

Leia felt his honesty and weighed it against her own distrust. It would do, she finally decided, as she severed the connection. “I’m surprised.’

“As am I,” Boba Fett responded. “You were… cautious.”

Instantly, she knew what he had meant. She had seen the closed doors, the locked away memories, and let them be. Perhaps people he had crossed paths with, earlier in his life, had not been so careful. “You allowed me to enter. I merely tried to be a good guest.”

Boba Fett nodded. “In return, I will ask you this. Why are you here, Leia Organa-Solo?”

She winced. “Just Organa.”

“As you wish.”

He agreed so readily, without argument or probing questions, that a small sigh of relief escaped her. She found herself telling him the truth. “I want to find a partner. Not just for me. But to help raise my son. It’s only the two of us, and he needs--” Leia cut herself off, stopping herself before she gave anything else away.

“As someone who was raised with only one parent, I would say it is the quality of the parenting, not the number of them.”

“You were?”

He inclined his head. “My father.”

How strange to think of a man like him being a boy, a long time ago. Stranger still to hear the respect and love still within his voice when he said that. But of course, everyone had once been young. Even her own father, though Leia still struggled with that. How could she see Vader as anything other than a monster? How could she see Boba Fett as anything other than a threat? She asked, “and what about you? Why are you here?”

He shrugged.

“Boba, please.”

“We’re on a first name basis, now, Senator?”

Leia glared at him. It had been a slip of the tongue, but now, she owns it, taking charge of the situation. “Yes, yes we are, you bantha brain. This is a date. We should call each other by name.”

“As you wish,” he said once more, his voice smooth and deep, “Leia.”

She shivered at the sound of her name and tried to tell herself it’s just the chill of the little meeting room. Maybe they made the rooms cold to make humans who met face-to-face want to cuddle closer. Maybe her room’s heating unit was just malfunctioning.

A smaller part of her brain scoffed at all those explanations. It’s the same part of her brain that dared her to ask, “they let you register for the service with your helmet on?”

There was an infinitely small pause. Leia, attuned to the Force, now more than ever, could have sworn she felt his humor, somehow, even from just the holo. He replied, “no, they did not.”

Which meant one of those faces had to have been his. For a moment, Leia wondered which one. Had he been one of the bald, yet handsome men with kind eyes? One of the slender men with tousled hair? She even considered that perhaps he had been one of the women she’d swiped right on. What a shock that would be, she mused. Not that the former Princess was dating a woman, but that the feared bounty hunter was one.

Then, Leia realized she’d gotten ahead of herself, imagining them actually dating, which would, of course, never happen. “Look, this isn’t going to work out. We both know that.”

“Why not?” Boba asked. “I’m a single man looking for a woman. You’re a woman looking for--”

“A person,” Leia said quickly.

“A person. Which, in case you did not notice, I happen to be.”

“There are rumors you’re a droid.”

“And there are rumors you’re a Sith lord,” Boba countered with rapidfire wit. “Shall we compare gossip for the rest of our hour?”

That’s right, Leia mused. They’d had to book the room for an hour. _Enough time to forge a bond,_ the site had said. But didn’t they already have a bond? One dark and dangerous, twisted throughout the years? “Look at us,” Leia said, half-bitter, half-amused. “From enemies to this.”

“We were never enemies. Solo was a contract, nothing more.”

Leia knocked back the rest of her drink. “Don’t suppose you’d want to take that contract again.”

Boba’s head tilted. “Explain.”

“Han’s gone.”

“My condolences.”

“Oh, no, he’s alive. Just… out there, somewhere. Gallivanting.” Leia gestured into the empty space around her. “Free of responsibilities, free of me. Lucky him, right?”

“I knew Solo was a fool, but I am actually surprised at his level of idiocy.” Boba’s image shifted in the viewer, and Leia realized he was settling in, sitting down in some chair that existed beyond what the holo-lens could pick up. “A woman like you, to say nothing of a family, is not something found every day.”

“Save your flattery.”

“I do not flatter, trust me.” Boba’s voice turned bitter, too. Leia found the longer she spoke with him, the more she was able to pick up on his little emotional notes, tiny dashes of humanity inside the filtered voice. “If I did, my own wife wouldn’t have… how did you say it… gone off gallivanting.”

“You were married?” Leia poured herself another drink, settling in as well. At the very least, it was nice to have a babysitter for this hour. A rare treat, despite current company.

Boba shrugged one shoulder. “A lifetime ago. We are no longer.”

Leia lifted her glass, the sparkling liquid reflecting the blue holo light. “Here’s to past relationships, may they haunt us no more.”

“You should put the berries to your left in the drink. They’ll add sweetness.”

“How did you…” Leia was quite sure that the berries were outside the view of the holo-lens.

“You aren’t my first date here, Senator. Sorry to disappoint.”

Oddly enough, Leia found that she was disappointed, at least a little. She had hoped it was the two of them both fumbling through this strange occurance, together. Then, Boba added, “you are the first I didn’t terminate communication with in under five minutes.”

“Lucky me,” Leia said, dryly. “So, then, tell me. Why are you on this service? Using it to track down a bounty?”

“That would be preferable.”

“Why?”

“Because I am good at my job, Leia, as I know you are good at yours. Romantic relations, on the other hand--”

“We’re both rubbish at?” Leia hazarded a guess.

There was another sound, almost like an exhale. It took Leia a moment to realize it had been a laugh. Boba then said, “there’s an orphanage on Utalakaa. I’d like to adopt the children there, so that their needs can be met better. But in order to do so, the wards there had stated I must show a measurable desire to find, an, ah…” There was a long pause. Leia wondered what Boba looked like when he was blushing. “A mate.”

“I see.” Leia’s own blush bloomed on her cheeks. “And the orphans will become minture bounty hunters then?”

“Not at all. There are good schools on one of the artificial moons of Kuat. I will send them there, give each an endowment. Let them make their way in the galaxy.”

It was as kind as it was simple a plan. And yet, it seemed strange to Leia that he would care so much. “Why these orphans?’

“It is the last of the ones set up to take in the children and grandchildren of clone troopers. The replicated DNA means that other facilities choose not to take them. Parents on civilized worlds seem to fear their children will not be _unique,_ ” sarcasm dripped from his words, “unless they are not clones.”

Leia had done a great deal of study on clones, when she had been much younger. She knew how hard they had fought to gain the same rights as all other humanoids in the galaxy. “I understand. But why--”

“My DNA, too, is not unique.” He stated it simply, but Leia could feel the tension ripple off of him. “I am a clone of a man named Jango Fett.”

The stories she had been told by her own parents, the only ones she truly called her parents, came to mind. Bail and Breha had both told her of battles fought during the Clone Wars, about the silver armor of a dangerous man. Neither of them had mentioned a boy left behind after he was gone. “Your father?” Leia asked.He had spoken so warmly, or at least, what passed for warmly, about the man.

Boba shrugged once.

“He raised you.”

That earned her a nod.

“Then he is your father. I know a thing or two about it. Our families are who we chose, not who we descend from.” Leia has vowed to always be an Organa, never a Skywalker. She honored the family who loved her, the family who had always kept her safe.

“As I said,” Boba replied, more than a little gruffly. “You are no fool.”

Leia sipped her drink more slowly, mulling over what Boba had said. “But you are a pratical man, Boba. Surely it is not out of simple charity that you do this.”

He went silent, or rather, his silence took on a sharper edge. Now, it was Leia’s turn to fold her arms and wait. It was the same expression she often wore when she was waiting for Ben to pick up his room.Patience, Leia had learned, could be cultivated even more as a mother than as a politician. Eventually, Boba said, “we had a daughter. My wife and I. She… I lost contact with her. But--”

“But any one of the children with the matching DNA could be your grandchild,” Leia finished for him. “I understand.”

“I failed her. I will not fail again.”

“Did you leave her in the arms of someone who would care for her?” Leia asked. Her fingers toy with a gemstone ring that had once been worn by the queen of Naboo. It sat next to a smaller ring once worn by the queen of Alderaan. Both rings were lovely, and yet, so much less lovely than the women who had worn them. She would have traded all her gems, all her inheritance, to see them once more. “Did you do all that you could to keep her safe?”

Boba did not answer.

“If so, you did not fail her.” Leia said.

He reached out a hand. For one tiny, strange moment, Leia thought he might be reaching out to connect with her. Impossible, of course. He was just a holo,no matter how much more real he had seemed after this conversation. Instead, the hand dropped, hitting a button on his ship’s dashboard. The call ended a second later, the blue image vanishing into nothingness.

Leia braced herself, her hands against the table, as a wave of powerful grief swept over her. Not hers, no, but all that he had locked away behind all those doors. Flashes of his memories course in her mind, because in his haste to break the holo-connection, he hadn’t closed the emotional one.

She saw him as a good father, as a husband who tried his best, as a man, flawed, but trying.

She saw him fail, and blame himself for decades for his failure.

In that moment, the last of her frustrations with Han fled from her heart. Because she had forgotten, over time, that everyone was just trying to make their way in the galaxy. Han had tried his best. This path was not for him. She hoped, then, that someday, Boba would come to peace with his own path.

Leia closed her eyes. The connection ended. Leia deleted her account that day, deciding that perhaps, her path was best walked alone.

* * *

_**A day later** _

_You deleted your account. Forgive the slicing into the private channels, but I owe you an apology._

Leia stared at the message flashing on her holopad. Was that from…

_I should not have cut you off. You deserved better manners on your first date, after so long._

Boba’s two messages hung on her screen, glowing faintly. Leia stared at them, not quite believing them to be true. How was she supposed to respond, anyway? He was a bounty hunter who needed to go on a date to prove his worthiness to an orphanage;. She was a chronic over-worker who didn’t deserve a romance.

_Should I cease communication?_

Leia’s heart did a funny stutter at that message. Quickly, she typed out one word. _No._

Then, silence.

Leia tapped her foot against the ground, hoping that Ben was still asleep. Then, she felt guilty for thinking such a thing. But Winter had told her it wasn’t selfish to want her own happiness, to put her own needs on the same order of importance as her child’s.

And what Leia wanted, though she wasn’t sure she needed was to flirt with a handsome man.

She lifted her hand and typed back. _Are your words implying I don’t deserve good manners on a second date?_

Silence. Was that a stupid thing to say? Was it not as witty as she had thought it would be?

_You deserve good manners always._

Well, there. Leia smiled. Perhaps she wasn’t so rusty at flirting after all.

_But you also deserve a better man than me._

“Why you…” Leia gritted her teeth. Who would have thought such a confident bounty hunter would be so reticence in a relationship?

Not that this was a relationship, of course.

After a moment, Leia typed back. _I have kissed four men in my life. Two are dead, one is my brother, and one is former spice-runner who cheats at Sabacc and doesn’t wash the dishes. Trust me, you’re a fine enough man._

_I do wash dishes, that’s true._

Leia, despite herself, laughed. Datapad in hand, she curled up on the couch. The messages pinged back and forth, until she dared to write, _about that second date?_

_I’m busy for a while. Stay in touch?_

She hoped it was a promise and not him letting her down easy. As the days passed and her screen lit up with more than the occasional message from him, she started to believe it was true. She had a friend again, someone to share stories with, someone to talk to late at night, someone to care for.

It was almost, but not quite, enough. Her bed was still cold, the dishes were still insurmountable, and Leia, despite herself, still hoped for a kiss.

* * *

_**A few months later.** _

Leia surveyed her son’s messy room. Clothes were draped on every surface, a glass of blue milk teetered dangerously on the edge of a cabinet, and toys were scattered like space mines. She sighed. “Ben, what were you doing?”

“Looking for my helmet! I wanna go flying with uncle Luke!”

Leia slumped onto the bed. Exhaustion had worn her down. She’d given up on most chores, including the dishes, and now questioned the example she was setting. “Uncle Luke had to go away, dearest. He'll be back when he can."

Ben’s lip wobbled, his eyes going wide. Leia sighed. “Come here.”

He rushed into her arms, snuggling close to her. “You could fly,” he mumbled. “Take an extra ship. Just for a liiiiittle bit.”

“Ben, I love you, I just don’t have the time to…”

Leia’s words trailed off as the door whooshed open. Boba Fett himself stood there. Or rather, the man she was going to assume was Boba Fett, stood there. His faded green flight suit was the only part of his armor remaining. Well, that, boots, and gloves. But there was no helmet hiding his face.

A face it turned out Leia did remember. A dark tumble of hair with a few streaks of silver. A strong jaw and a determined gaze. He was somehow more handsome in person.

“Boba,” Leia said softly. If they’d been at first names once before, surely they could be again. “May I help you?”

“Are you a pilot?” Ben asked excitedly. “What sort of blaster have you got? I like your boots!”

“Thank you,” Boba said simply, first to the boy, then, again, this time facing Leia. “I received the documents. And the associated--”

“It’s nothing,” Leia waved away his words.

He arched one eyebrow. It was a good, practiced expression on him. Leia wondered how often he’d done it behind his helmet. She wondered if he ever smiled. At least she no longer had to wonder what he looked like, under that helmet.

Despite his handsomeness, Leia stood her ground. “Truly. Think nothing of it.” It was a lie, of course. Although she was a skilled slicer, she still needed plenty of time to coax out the records from various databases, to create a fund for all the clones’ descendants with no families to keep them safe, to cash in some of her old jewelry to fund the savings account. But it had been good. A project, to keep her busy.

Maybe that was what she had needed, she told herself. A project, not a partner. And indeed, up until now, she’d almost fooled herself into believing that. Up until now, Leia had told herself she’d be quite alright if she’d never be kissed again.

But now Boba Fett was standing in front of her and he was all she wanted in the whole galaxy.

“You’re Ben, right?” Boba dropped to one knee, the sort of thing few adults remembered to do around children. “Your mother said you like flying. I brought this for you.”

He held out a holobook. Leia sighed. “Ben’s not--” she meant to say, _much of a reader._

But Boba flicks on the book with a thumb. An image appears, along with a scroll of words. It was an old, old transport ship, from before the Clone Wars. Boba cleared his throat and read the first words out-loud. “When Jaster took off, the sky was empty. Suddenly, three ships--” and as he spoke, the holo image changed. Just as the words had said, three small skirmisher ships appeared to chase the transport.

Ben gasped.

“It was one of the only books my dad ever liked,” Boba explained. “You read and it shows you what’s happening.”

“Is it for me?” Ben asked, nearly breathless.

Boba lifted his head, looking to Leia. She nodded. “Yes,” Boba said. “All yours, kid.”

Ben took the book and raced off, down the hallway.

“That was kind of you.”

“It was nothing,” Boba replied, both quoting Leia and answering her unspoken question. Boba Fett did smile sometimes. A wonderful, slightly mischievous smile that made his dark eyes glint. “Right?”

“Right.”

“The dishes are done, too.” Boba lifted one shoulder in that effortless shrug she’d seen him do before. “For what it’s worth.”

Her grin widened. “That’s worth a lot. No wonder your bounty prices are so high.” It felt odd, and yet familiar, to joke with him in this way. After months of typing, speaking felt so much more intimate than ever before.

“Yes. Dishwashing. Often requested by clients, that’s true.” Boba looked around the messy room, then, to Leia. His gaze took in her exhaustion, the stains on her dress. He lifted a hand, again, pausing for permission. “May I?”

“Y-yes.” Leia blushed, embarrassed at her nervous stutter. She was no Kuzucalf-eyed girl, stammering around a handsome man. She was a military leader, for Force’s sake. A Jedi. And yet… “I like your face.” Leia blurted out.

Boba Fett’s hand cupped her cheek. His glove was rough, but she could feel the warmth of his palm underneath it. Then, still smiling, he leaned in and kissed her, hard. It was the sort of kiss that meant he’d been thinking about it for a while, the sort that made her toes curl and her heart hammer. The sort of kiss she’d quite given up on.

Leia let out the smallest of moans, pressing her body against his, enjoying how solid he felt. Even without armor, he seemed formidable, sturdy, strong. He seemed like someone she could depend on, which was what she so desperately needed.

And he seemed like a very, very good kisser, which was also something she desperately needed, though she’d never allowed herself to voice that need.

When they finally pulled apart from the kiss, they were both short of breath. Leia’s fingers tightened their grip on his jumpsuit, not ready to let him go. Not yet.

“Good,” Boba said, before bending to kiss the top of her head. “Because I think you might be seeing it for a while.”


End file.
